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Article THE ROMAN COLLEGIA. ← Page 2 of 8 →
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The Roman Collegia.
comforting the manes as in securing to his relatives an immunity against his malignant attacks . For the disembodied spirit was an irritable divinity , which might harm though it never could do good . * "We may therefore easily understand that a permanent and adequate provision , which should realize these two advantages to all who joined a college , could never fail to attract men who entertained such beliefs .
" Through this agency of the college that terror of antiquity , ' ne nltimus suorum moriatur , ' had no place in the mind of a member , for the colleagues of the deceased were a never-failing kindred , at whose hands he would receive those sacred rites the provision for which nature had otherwise denied him .
" The common lawful purpose associated with burial and sacrifice was as diverse and various as the interests of civilized communities must ever be . Every art , trade , profession and business had its college . Some of these colleges were exceptionally numerous and abnormally powerful . The mintmen of Rome were in one age strong
enough to revolt as a nation , and the old clothesmen { centonarii ) , united with the timber merchants and dealers in wood ( dendrophori ) , constituted the most populous and influential corporation ever known under the empire .
" Sometimes colleges were constituted for burial and parentation only , — 'funerum causa , ' as it was said . These colleges , having no professional character to sustain , no aims in trade to promote , called themselves only worshippers of some god or goddess whom they had selected out of the well-stocked Pantheon of Europe and Asia . In such a case they designated themselves cultores Jovis , cultores Herculis , and the like . f
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Roman Collegia.
comforting the manes as in securing to his relatives an immunity against his malignant attacks . For the disembodied spirit was an irritable divinity , which might harm though it never could do good . * "We may therefore easily understand that a permanent and adequate provision , which should realize these two advantages to all who joined a college , could never fail to attract men who entertained such beliefs .
" Through this agency of the college that terror of antiquity , ' ne nltimus suorum moriatur , ' had no place in the mind of a member , for the colleagues of the deceased were a never-failing kindred , at whose hands he would receive those sacred rites the provision for which nature had otherwise denied him .
" The common lawful purpose associated with burial and sacrifice was as diverse and various as the interests of civilized communities must ever be . Every art , trade , profession and business had its college . Some of these colleges were exceptionally numerous and abnormally powerful . The mintmen of Rome were in one age strong
enough to revolt as a nation , and the old clothesmen { centonarii ) , united with the timber merchants and dealers in wood ( dendrophori ) , constituted the most populous and influential corporation ever known under the empire .
" Sometimes colleges were constituted for burial and parentation only , — 'funerum causa , ' as it was said . These colleges , having no professional character to sustain , no aims in trade to promote , called themselves only worshippers of some god or goddess whom they had selected out of the well-stocked Pantheon of Europe and Asia . In such a case they designated themselves cultores Jovis , cultores Herculis , and the like . f